Frisch wants Biden out of race, arguing he can’t push back again ‘all the lies Trump was telling’

Western Slope congressional candidate Adam Frisch grabbed some headlines Tuesday by being among the first Democrats to call for 81-year-old President Joe Biden to get out of the 2024 race, citing the president’s advanced age and inability to effectively combat former President Donald Trump’s incessant stream of lies during last week’s first presidential debate.

“The number one goal that President Biden should have had was to push back effectively on all the lies that President Trump was [telling], and he failed to do it,” Frisch said in a phone interview Tuesday. “And it was very clear from the very start that, for better or worse, the TV anchors [on CNN] were not going to get involved in that conversation.

“So it was on Biden, and he couldn’t even push back on that. He couldn’t even defend women’s reproductive healthcare, which is his bread and butter, so yeah, I appreciate that you could make an argument about all the bad things that Trump did on the debate stage, but he’s going one way and President Biden’s going the other way in the polls,” Frisch added.

Starting with an email blast and a video statement and culminating in a guest opinion piece in the Washington Post, Frisch, who lost to Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert by just 546 votes in 2022, argued “neither candidate should be running for president … we deserve better. President Biden should do what’s best for the country and withdraw from the race.”

Pressed on why he’s not calling more aggressively for Trump, a 78-year-old convicted felon who rambles and lies incessantly, to get out of the race, Frisch made it clear neither candidate should be running.

“My view is that there is an anti-Trump coalition, not so much a pro-Biden coalition, so find somebody who can build the best version of an anti-Trump coalition,” Frisch said, lamenting the lack of a competitive Democratic presidential primary and stating no clear preference for a younger replacement for Biden going forward. He claims Biden backers haven’t been honest with the American public about the aging president’s waning health.

“There’s like a dozen Biden advisors that I think, with respect, have not been completely honest about the status of the president’s health for many months, and they’ve been gaslighting, for lack of a better term, nationally, well-respected journalists who’ve been writing stories about what they’ve heard,” Frisch said, adding things are only going to get worse before the Nov. 5 election.

“[Biden] was losing before the debate. He’s certainly losing after the debate. I assume the polls are going to come out and not be beneficial, and that’s before there’s $500 million spent attacking him based on a series of clips, partly from the debate and partly elsewhere,” Frisch said.

Colorado’s massive 3^rd Congressional District, which includes most of southern and western Colorado, leans Republican and independent. A businessman and former Aspen City Council member, Frisch previously worked in the financial markets as a trader.

Asked to comment on the age and mental health of both presidential candidates, a campaign spokesman for Grand Junction lawyer Jeff Hurd – Frisch’s Republican opponent in November – declined to weigh in.

“On the presidential race, Jeff’s been consistent in all of his statements. He’s going to be focused exclusively on the district and talking about the issues there,” Hurd campaign spokesman Nick Bayer said. “We don’t have a comment on [the presidential race].”

The Colorado Democratic Party remains firmly behind the incumbent president.

“For the sake of Colorado families and our country, Donald Trump cannot win in November,” Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib wrote in an email in response to the Frisch statement. “Last week, Donald Trump lied continuously to voters and refused to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election. Meanwhile, President Biden proved that he’s the only candidate in this race with a proven track record of improving the lives of Coloradans by lowering costs, creating jobs, and fighting for our freedoms. We must unite behind President Biden, Vice President Harris, and their vision of moving America forward.”

Frisch was asked about Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that presidents enjoy immunity from prosecution for crimes committed as “official acts” in the White House and whether that gave him any pause in calling for Biden to get out of the race as Trump faces federal charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“I’ve heard from a lot of independents and Republicans who, for a variety of reasons, they’re going be voting for Donald Trump but do not want an unfettered Donald Trump,” Frisch said. “And so they will be looking at possible candidates in the Senate or House to offset Trump, because most people actually want to see checks and balances as the founders set up.”

To some degree, Frisch understands what the High Court was trying to accomplish.

“I certainly believe that presidents of either party are going to deserve some type of immunity when they make decisions, otherwise they’ll be hamstrung on making official decisions that are not completely popular,” Frisch said. “Having said that, January 6th was a horrible day for our country without a doubt, and to call these people arrested political prisoners [as Trump has done] is a slap in the face to real political prisoners that are American citizens being held overseas.”

Edit’s note: This story first appeared on the Colorado Times Recorder website.

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts
• Fund Real Vail

David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail

David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.

Latest posts by David O. Williams (see all)

• Aspen’s Schendler will leave a lasting legacy on climate as he departs Vail rival - December 19, 2024
• The O. Zone: Not just a great Yes song, Roundabout redo is kinda doo-doo - December 18, 2024
• The O. Zone: OilTrain vs. SunTrain, who you got? Supreme Court set to tip the scales - December 9, 2024